Tuesday, January 13

It's taken me all day to finally plop down here. But perhaps the reason I haven't settled here all day to actually write is that there is absolutely nothing worthwhile that's happening around my household to share. I mean, who wants to read about sickness? Blech......

Back around New Year's when I had taken my daughter in for a strep test, I asked about flu in the area. "Nope", the doctor said. At that time he had only read of four cases diagnosed in the state.

So today I went online to check influenza symptoms and we have most of them.

Fever over 101 for adults, 103 - 105 for children...check.

Chills and sweats...check.

Headache...check.

Muscular aches and pains...check.

Sore throat...check.

Weakness and fatigue...check.

Loss of appetite...check.

Runny/stuffy nasal congestion....a bit of this, so check.

Cough...NOPE.

Chest congestion...NOPE.

So I guess we really don't have the influenza because we are missing the whole chest congestion/coughing part for which I am very thankful, although I will say that there are a lot of chest aches and pains.

But I'm wondering what we do have because we do have symptoms that aren't listed anywhere like the following ones which members of our family have experienced:

*All the evening lights in the house look very yellowish and hazy.

*It's difficult to read or even watch movies.

*Although you are listening to all the sounds around the household while you are lying in bed with your eyes closed thinking you aren't sleeping, suddenly your eyes jump open and you have a little pool of drool on your pillow.

*There is a "couldn't care less" attitude about everyone and everything else that may be happening in the household.

*You are certain that the chills you are experiencing must be from the sub-zero temperatures outside, so you pile more blankets on top of your quaking body which is guaranteed to quickly raise a temperature higher than any thermometer can keep up with on a good day.

*After you finally get over the hump, you'll continue to feel like blech and yuck and ugh for several days.

So, who knows what we have?

I'm just thankful that it is slowly going through our family as the memory is still quite vivid of several years ago when many of us came down with the influenza at pretty the same time. I actually had to write out a chart with all our names to track temperatures, medicines, foods, drinks, times to set the alarm clock to get up to check fevers, etc. Ahhhhh, memories!

Here's to good health! And sooner rather than s.l.o.w.l.y. would be a bonus!

If you have other glimpses you'd like to share, please drop me a note at: tam.gardening@yahoo.com

gardening goals

"Cultivate faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love in your children. For if they are growing in these qualities, they won't be ineffective or unproductive, and they will never stumble." - paraphrase of II Peter 1:5-10 from "Hugs for the Heart"